Wood heel



Feb. 8, 1938. s. G. RO$S 2,107,391

WOOD HEEL Filed May 11, 1936 JvvEA/TUR Patented F ch. 8, I938 WOOD HEEL Simon G. Boss, Marblehead, Mass, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application May 11, 1936, Serial No. 78,983

1 Claim.

In the manufacture of shoes to which wood heels are to be attached the rear end of the outsole is trimmed to form a tongue which is too short and too narrow to reach to the edge of the heel seat. This tongue is substantially parallel sided and round ended, and its edge is beveled all around, the bevel being of substantial width. The edge of this beveled portion should, in good shoemaking, overlap the overlasted edge of the shoe upper materials all around the heel seat. These materials, comprising the lining, counter and upper, are of substantial thickness and the pocket formed under the outsole tongue bounded by this wall of. overlasted material should be filled by a small piece of leather or fiber, to prevent the outsole tongue from sinking into the pocket when the tongue is pounded down and tacked to the insole, and to prevent the end of the insole from being drawn into it when the heel attaching fastenings are inserted, in either of which cases the shoe is liable to be unsatisfactory as will be explained below.

In making the cheaper grades of shoes the filler block is often omitted so that the outsole tongue, except at its beveled edge, is pounded down into the pocket mentioned, the thin beveled edge curling upward and over the edge of the overlasted upper materials. Often, too, this condition is aggravated by a lack of care in making the outsole tongues of the proper varying dimen sions for shoes of different sizes, so that in the case of. the larger shoes those portions of the tongues which lie to the rear of the ends of the shank pieces are often found completely sunk in the pockets, their edges not reaching beyond the edge of the overlasted upper materials. This leads to unsatisfactory shoemaking as will ap pear from the following description of the wood heel attaching face.

The wood heel in ordinary use has its attaching face concaved to a uniform depth from the breast to the back, the edges of the concavity rising in a fairly sharp curve toward the peripheral edge of the attaching face, where a narrow flat rim is left. This rim is inch to inch wide, and is a portion of the upper flat surface of the prismatic heel blank from which the heel is cut.

Such heels will fit properly upon shoes with properly made outsole tongues and with proper filler pieces, as above described, but in the case of the cheaper shoes mentioned, the falling of the outsole tongue into the pocket to the rear of the shank end leaves an unoccupied cavity at the rear end of the shoe between the tongue and the attaching face of the wood heel so that the cement which is used for temporary attachment of the heel does not take hold properly in this region, thus engendering some liability of displacement of. the heel before its permanent me- 5 tallic fastenings are inserted. Furthermore, the insertion of these fastenings is liable to pull the outsole tongue and insole down into this cavity between the heel and the tongue, and distort the inside of the bottom of the shoe in this region.

It is a principal object of this invention to proidde a wood heel having a concaved attaching face which will fit the type of heel seat just described, thereby avoiding the difiiculties mentioned. Accordingly, I have provided a wood heel with an attaching face whose central longitudinal line is substantially straight, from the breast to the rim at the back of the heel, though the attaching face is concaved from side to side over its whole extent. Advantageously, also, the rim of the attaching face is widened to about A; inch, and is slightly concaved, instead of. plane, in order to efiect better contact with the overlasted outer surface of the upper.

These and other features of the invention comprising certain combinations and arrangements of parts will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention shown in the drawing, in which Fig. 1 illustrates the rear end of a shoe with the heel in position ready for the permanent fastenings;

Figs. 2 and 3 are transverse cross-sections on the lines II-II and III-III of Fig. 4; and

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal central vertical crosssection of the heel.

The illustrated heel is of. the Cuban type and has a concave rim it, about A; inch wide, around its attaching face from breast corner to breast corner. The concavity of this rim corresponds to the curvature of the heel plate used on a last for the shoe of the size for which the heel is suitable. This rim it surrounds a deeper and sharper concavity it which is of ordinary depth at the breast line l4 and which tapers uniformly in depth up to the inner edge of the rim H3 at the center of the back of the heel, at it. This gradual diminution in depth is illustrated in Figs. 2, 3, and 4. The central longitudinal line if; of the concave attaching face (Fig. 4) is substantially straight from the breast M to the point it at the inner edge of the rim Hi.

When the illustrated heel is attached to a shoe 20 (Fig. 1) having an insole 22, shank 24, out,- sole tongue 26 beveled at 21 and tacked at 28 to 2 the insole 22', the lining 29, counter 30, and upper 32, all being prepared for the heel attaching operation as described above, the concavity l2 and the rim' [0 will substantially fit the tongue 26 and the overlasted upper materials at 36 whereby the cement used in temporarily attaching the heel will hold it firmly over the entire surface of its attaching face. Ihe attaching face of the heeliand the outsole tongue 25 are solidly in corn tact, as are the tongue 26 and the insole 22, so that the insertion of the permanent metallic fastenings will not distort the insole and damage the foot bearing surface on the inside of the shoe.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A wood heel having a concave rim around its attaching face arranged to contact with the overlasted margin of the upper materials around the heel seat of a shoe over a substantial portion of the width of said margin, said heel having also a deeper and sharper concavity in its attaching face dropping from the inner edge of said rim, the depth of said concavity corresponding to the shapeof the breast portion of an outsole at the breast of the heel and tapering uniformly from a substantial depth at the breast of the heel to zero at the rear central part of the inner edge of, said rim, the longitudinal central line of the concavity being substantially straight over the major portion of its length.

SIMON G. ROSS. 

